Keynote speakers announced for the 3rd International Conference for Carceral Geography, University of Liverpool, UK

Keynote speakers announced for the 3rdInternational Conference for Carceral Geography, University of Liverpool, UK

17-18th December 2018

counterpoints and counter-intuition

Following the success of the 1st and 2nd International Conferences for Carceral Geography held at the University of Birmingham, the Carceral Geography Working Group (CGWG) of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) will organise the 3rdInternational Conference for Carceral Geography at the University of Liverpool.

The conference committee are pleased to welcome Professor Dominique Moran (University of Birmingham) and Professor Chris Philo (University of Glasgow) as this year’s keynote speakers.

The 3rd International Conference for Carceral Geography provides an opportunity for presentation and discussion of work on all forms of carcerality; camps, confinement, custody, detention and incarceration, from carceral geographers, and scholars, scholar-activists and practitioners from all disciplines. Contributions from Early Career Researchers are especially welcomed.

The conference theme of “counterpoints and counter-intuition” is intended encourage both a diversity of perspectives on the carceral, and to stimulate discussion of that which is or was unanticipated, had been unimagined, or was unforeseen.

‘Counterpoint’ is a term used in musical theory to describe the relationship between voices that are simultaneously independent yet interdependent. We deploy this term here to describe the differing perspectives which characterise carceral research – including scholar-activism aligned to abolitionism or reductionism, and research conducted within and with the formal approval of, carceral establishments. We see all of these voices as purposeful and productive, and through this theme we seek to highlight both their independence, and the interdependences between them. All perspectives are welcome, and the theme of ‘carceral counterpoint’ encourages constructive and collaborative dialogue across the diversity of perspectives.

Through the theme of ‘carceral counter-intuition’ we seek to explore the unexpectedness of carcerality, its unimagined forms and its unforeseen aspects – and simultaneously to interrogate their apparently counter-intuitive nature. Carceral geographers and others have noted that the carceral exists in unexpected places beyond the formal contours of detention or prison; carceral scholarship is increasingly identifying previously under-recognised aspects and consequences of confinement, and innovative methodologies are uncovering under-researched elements of carceral experience. And beyond the ‘academy’, 2018 has itself brought the ‘unanticipated’. An unexpected heatwave in Europe has caused deterioration in prison conditions – yet climate change research tells such that such extreme weather events are increasingly likely. And the US has seen the unthinkable – the separation of migrant families at the border and the incarceration of migrant children – in a move depicted by the Trump administration as an inevitable consequence of the enforcement of a ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy.

This CFP is intentionally broad, reflecting the diversity and expansive nature of carceral geography. All contributions are welcome, but in this 3rd International Conference we particularly invite papers which speak to the carceral counterpoint and counter-intuitive – in other words, which draw attention to the unexpected, unanticipated and/or unimagined aspects of carcerality, and which critique their counter-intuitive character.

Please send abstracts of 250 words by a closing date of 1 October 2018. Successful contributors will be notified by 31st October.

Conference registration will be free. Catering for both days will be available at the cost charge of £27 to include lunch and all refreshment breaks. An optional conference dinner will also be available.

There will be a limited number of travel and accommodation bursaries available for paper presenters. These will be limited to £50 for speakers travelling from the UK outside of London; £100 for speakers travelling from London, and £200 for speakers travelling from outside the UK. Accommodation bursaries will be limited to £50. Priority for bursaries will be given to CGWG members who are also RGS Fellows and to speakers who have not previously received financial support to attend the annual conference.